Share this & save a life… REALLY.

Oh crap…. He’s on one!

Actually, by sharing this, you ARE more likely to help save a life, or protect an endangered species, or stop someone getting car jacked, or help raise money for truly needy charities and programs…

Money scams, charity requests, sick kids, murderers, stalkers of women drivers, dead soldiers, freebies, Facebook charges….. and OMG LOOK WHAT THIS GIRL WAS CAUGHT DOING BY HER DAD…….

Rather than fuelling the crap, why not check the validity of it at somewhere like snopes.com first?

I know you mean well…. but…… ARGH!!!!

You see, every time I see a scam ‘Share this to help raise money for this child with cancer‘ story in my Facebook feed, or a tweet… even if it is well meaning… a little bit of me dies.

Okay, so technically a little piece of all of us is dying all the time, as cells die and new ones regenerate… but that’s beside the point…

Very sad, but you're not helping THIS child... or anyone else.

Most of the stories are scams and falsehoods (verily).

They are contrived rubbish DESIGNED to make people want to spread them around.

Yes…. People are arseholes who prey on other people.

At best, all these continuous ‘PLEASE SHARE THIS!!! URGENT‘ etcetera stories just numb people, and eventually, like the kid who cried……

“WOLF!!!! OH SHITOSHITOSHIT“

…….people just ignore them, they become blasé …. and in doing so, the REAL stories… the REAL advice… the REAL charities…. that GOOD stuff gets ignored too.

A High Horse, Yesterday

Whilst I’m way up here on this high (but extremely valid) horse,  please….please…. don’t say things like;

“Well, maybe the one legged child didn’t save the leprous old woman, but it’s a lovely story about human nature…”

…because it isn’t. You’ve just made more people ignore REAL messages. You’ve just killed a rain forest and let more people die from an illness that NEEDED real help. Moron.

You’ll most likely find the messages, status updates, tweets etcetera, are variations of old emails that were written to make people spread the sad tales around, whilst actually spreading an attached virus that you didn’t know about.

Same goes for the emails, texts and messages that say:

“Send this to 5 friends right now or an elephant will shit on your car and your first born will be born terminally stupid“.

Then people say “What harm can it do to share it? Ho ho!!!“… apart from the virus it may carry… or the fact that people will just end up ignoring relevant information you send them because they are so used to the bogus stuff you send out…. well…. no harm at all… Although are you really that crazed to think forwarding on this pap will actually get you some good luck… or do you really fear the bad things that might happen if you don’t forward it on?

Are you really from the Middle Ages?

Look, just extinguish that witch you are burning and stop worrying that the sky is falling and CHECK YOUR FACTS FIRST….

If you want to share something, it’s not better to be safe than sorry… it’s better TO BE RIGHT.

Less fictional, poorly researched crap means people take note of the real news, the real information…. I’m sure I’ve said that enough now….

So you see… by sharing THIS blog entry, and getting people to check sites such as snopes.com first before blindly sharing and posting bogus information, well…. you could save a life…. because the less cries of wolf there are, the more likely it is that people will take notice of the real stories again… and then those people might help the child, donate to charity, stop the internet virus…

Search Snopes.com FIRST

So, next time you see some repeated repeated repeated status update, tweet, message, email etc…. then share this blog entry with that person….

http://bit.ly/scamandspam

….and relax……

Save cash on fuel

EDITED – See end of text for latest figures!

Since getting my old Audi A4 (1996 Saloon) I have covered over 6000 miles in under 3 months.

I drive over 100 miles a day – and that works out as an average of 76.1 miles a day including my none driving days!

That also works out at £8.04 a day on average…. and 659.8 miles per fill up.

So… I have the perfect chance to try several ways to save fuel.

I didn’t want to do anything over the top. I wanted to make slight changes to see what would happen. The type of changes you could do quite easily without altering your driving style so much.

Firstly I did a few journeys at my normal style. I’m no racer – I keep up with the traffic and drive as the traffic around me drives – so pretty average.

The table below shows a few statistics on my trips. I purchased the car with 113816 miles on the clock – so that is why the first line shows 0mpg – I hadn’t got anything to judge it against.

By the 27/08/09 I had covered 638 miles filling up with 57.63 litres – I had covered those 638 miles at 50.33mpg – a good starting point, as when I chose the car I was looking for 50mpg or more at the very least.

The next entry and I only got 47.03mpg! I knew why though. I was a bit heavier on the throttle and harder on the brakes. I even went around a track which gave the impact of driving the car like a “boy racer” – although that was only for 3 miles…. ONLY 3 miles like an idiot racer and it hammered my economy.

The following fill up gave me 55.66mph – and that was by far gentler driving… but nothing major!

I still drove at the same speeds on the roads as I had done on the previous tests, but this time I didn’t floor the throttle to get to those speeds, and I didn’t use harsh braking to slow down.

I simply put enough throttle down to get the car moving, then as it gathered speed I’d change up a gear – but a little earlier than usual. The time it took to get up to my usual top speeds was a little slower, but it was there that most of the fuel savings took place.

When it came to driving I simply left a bigger gap between me and the car ahead. If I saw the cars ahead start to slow I would come off of the throttle straight away instead of catching up and having to brake.

This way I wasn’t wasting fuel by braking and accelerating all the time – I was just using the throttle to keep me gently at my cruising speed – which was the same cruising speed I had used from the beginning of the test.

As you can see – between harsh driving and gentle driving I had a change in mpg of 8.63 mpg… or 299 miles per tank – at the time that was £6.84 per tank saved. For me that is over £350 a year… which  covers MoT & Tax.

The thing is, the journey to and from work is not taking any longer. Just driving calmly, pre-empting what other cars were doing, having a feather weight foot rather than a lead one… it all added up.

I use the iPhone App – Road Trip to measure all of this. Since using it I have taken a greater interest in my economy – I even have all my expenses set up on it so I can see the true daily cost of my car once insurance, fuel, tax, MoT, services etc are taken into account. Currently it costs £12.21 a day – which is less than half the price of a return train ticket for my work!

Annoyingly the M3 then had months of road works – and the reduced speed took the car out of an economic cruise, so I lost the high mileage economy for a while. Still, I managed to keep the average up over 50mpg.

Yellow: Price per Litre / White: MPG / Blue: Average

I am now trying to hone my driving style to reduce the fuel cost even more. I mentioned that I would simply come off of the throttle if I was catching up with traffic. If I caught up too fast (nothing dangerous)  then I was using the brake. This isn’t the best way to save fuel…. You see modern cars that are aiming at giving better economy are now using engine braking to help save fuel. One way you can do this with older cars is to come off of the throttle, put the clutch in so the revs drop off, then slowly let the clutch out again. The speed of the car will then try to spin the engine revs back up again, and as this happens the energy used to spin the engine up is lost in speed. I am finding I can slow down quite smoothly this way – and in fact don’t need to use the brake unless I am coming to a dead stop, or if there is an event that requires faster stopping.

I also don’t sit on the clutch at traffic lights or on hills. I go into neutral and put the hand brake on. It doesn’t seem like much, but it all adds up. Correctly servicing the car, keeping the tyres to the correct pressure (an important safety check in its own right) – it’s all important in the fight to save fuel bills – and none of it is difficult to achieve.

It’s all about being calm – and it is true to a point, driving faster doesn’t get you there any quicker – but driving there with a bit more thought will save a lot of money.

UPDATE!

Even though I spent some time stuck in traffic due to a huge problem on the M27, the results from clutch braking are showing through. I have just returned my best MPG to date at 56.18mpg – giving my daily running cost (including all bills etc) of just over 15 pence!). If I carried on driving hard, that would go up to £1.15!!! That’s a heck of a difference.

One person pointed out that this may wear the clutch out more… BUT… I am using less brakes and less fuel – which more than makes up for any additional clutch wear. Also. the clutch is gently slipping within a small speed & rev range, so the wear is much less than you would get when changing gear. So clutch wear is a mute point here.

King of Shaves going strong

Still baldly going where no razor has gone before….

Looking and feeling good is important. I wouldn’t have said this a year ago – but I hadn’t met Will King back then. After meeting him I started to get into male grooming products. I can safely say that I feel better in myself now for the extra care I take shaving.

Some people just think shaving is something that gets in the way and is just done as quick as possible in whatever way is cheapest or available…. well I used to be that way too until I slowed down and now use my shower/shave time to slow down and clear my head (mentally and physically!!!!).

What has happened since I started using KoS and taking a bit more pride and time over myself? Well…. I got myself a new job… executive level and £7,000 more a year…. Will King’s positivity and drive may have rubbed off on me a bit, but feeling better in myself made me feel a lot more confident. I know it sounds crazy, but the proof is there.

Want to feel better? Just take time out to enjoy your shave rather than just enduring it. Make it a bit of “you time“.

King of Shaves (KMI) is still going strong in our house – infact it is going stronger now than before. KMI have baby products now, and alongside the Azor (the superb Gillette and Wilkinson Sword beating razor) there is now the Azure for ladies.

There is no way I’ll go back to the more expensive brands when the KoS Azor is more cost effective, lasts over 4 times longer and gives a far better shave!

After about 8 months using Azors I can safely say that my initial findings were not fluke. I can shave my face and head more times with the Azor than I could just shave my face with a Gillette! That shows not only does the Azor cost less up front, but once you factor in how long the blades last the Azor is cheaper than a dodgy chemist chuck-away razor! This is what you need in this credit crunch era.

The gels and creams are also amazing quality and cost. The smallest pea size portion of gel does my entire head! Sure, the initial cost may be close to the competition products, but once more it lasts far longer – more savings!

What is the downside though? Well… before the Azure came out the downside was that Chris nicked my Azor – but that’s all fixed now!

It gets better though… I have always had sensitive skin and had to be very careful how I shave. A year ago I would never have shaved my head for fear it would rash up – but the Azor is so darned good I can shave my scalp daily (ooooh and it feels good!). Even better still I have a technique that should really be frowned upon… a technique that would cause me great trouble with anything other than an Azor….

I place the Azor on my scalp and do not lift it up for the whole shave… I just glide it back and forth all over… with the hair growth, against the haor growth… no problem whatsoever! Heck, I can do my entire head in less than two minutes!

Using the Azor after anything else is like using a Mac after using a PC…. a real eye opener of how it should be done.

So… What are you waiting for? Grab an Azor for a shave that is better for you and your pocket.

King of Shaves is the Brawn F1 team of the shave world… McLaren and Ferrari are the Wilkinson Sword and Gillette. WS & G have tried to stay ahead with flashy things but with a poorly judged complacency, whilst all the time KoS gets stronger and bigger with the simple ideals of a good product, good infrastructure and an item that works without the whistles and bells.

Congratulations to Jenson Button and all at Brawn and Virgin for another wonderful race victory.

If you want you can follow Will King and KMI on Twitter at: KingOfShaves

Note: Although I admin on the ShaveForum I am independent to KMI and KoS. If Gillette or Wilkinson Sword made a product that bettered the Azor, then I would use it. So far though they don’t. Not even close.